Only thing a Fender Mustang Single coil pickup has that is different from a Fender Single coil pickup are that their Magnetic Poles pieces were all even sized. They were flat like the Dimarzio SDS-1, Super 2 and Dual Sound/Super Distortion. With his right hand approach high action, pickup height, IMHO, it was what was needed and it appears from the photos that this may be true. Strat poles are clearly visible and uneven.

~waldo

Last edited by waldo041 on Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Hi Waldo-
On my hard-tail natural strat for 30 years or so, I have used the pickup from my 50's "White" lap steel (fender's student model named after Forrest White) for the middle position because I wanted a 50's pickup alligator vibe, it's probably alnico III and around 5.5k. Most recently along with a stock 70's ceramic for the neck (also 5.5k) and a splittable Super distortion in the bridge position (13.68k, 6.84k split). If you look close, the stock 70's neck pickup pole pieces are pretty flat too.
I swapped the white pickup out when I was working at EMG in the 80's and put an SA in the lap steel.

I'm pretty certain the "White" used the same pickups as the 50's duo-sonics, and most likely the later 60's mustang pickups, perhaps the magnet material changed over the years but the overall design stayed the same. It has flat pole pieces that are flush with the bobbin to fit under the solid cover on those guitars. I have it in the stock strat cover and the poles are actually recessed a little in the openings (see pic).
It does indeed sound very Jerry-like!
You can catch a peek of it here in an earlier configuration with the original cover that my Grandfather wore through the corner of playing the lap steel. The strat was also his, he gave it to me for my high school graduation, Thanks Grandpa! -Erik

Awesome! I have been waiting a few years to present this notion of possibly using these pickups over strat single coils. They are the same thing and even it they were actually strat single coils and they just pushed the poles down even, they would have created a mustang pickup then! Alligator looks like it still has them, so maybe one day we could get the answer, but highly doubtful since it has been said Debra Koons owns it.

Flat Pole vs. Staggered Pole Pickups
If you compared a flat-pole pickup to a staggered-pole pickup wound the same way, you would get a little more presence (like a Fender Amp presence knob), a little more bass and a little more overall output from the flat-pole pickup. Another way to think about it is that a flat-pole pickup will generate a little more output without putting more wire on the pickup coil. Adding more wire changes the frequency response, usually by losing some treble and gaining some bass. If you are already used to using staggered-pole pickups, you may find that you will need to turn the bass down slightly on the amplifier because with a flat-pole pickup you will no longer have to make up for weak low strings.

In most cases the flat-pole pickup will give you a better string balance. The high E won't get buried in the mix like a staggered-pole pickup can. You will also notice that the two low strings are louder than a staggered-pole set, and the G string does not overpower the others.

On a staggered-pole pickup the low strings rarely overpower any amp, but they can also sound somewhat subdued or weak. The volume on the G string tends to dominate all others. If you have previously played using only staggered-poles and you don't notice any discrepancies with string-to-string volume balance, you have learned to compensate for them. If you decide to try a flat-pole set, it may take some time to adapt but once you get familiar with the sound, you'll find they work better in most cases than a staggered-pole design. For example, all Teles up until around 1956 had flat-poles — and no one ever comments that their 1952 Telecaster has bad string balance. Also, most Telecasters, Jazzmaster, Mustangs and Fender bass guitars have historically had flat-pole pickups. On Gibson guitars no one ever staggers the adjustable poles as much as Strat pickups.

A couple of years ago I ordered some booteek single coil strat pups for a hardtail build, which of course I never finished. The builder recommended going with flat-pole pickups on a hardtail strat rather than staggered pole, though I don't remember the rationale. He also built pups specifically for 7.25 and 9.5 radius necks, but recommended using flat poles for necks that run in the 10-12 radius range. As I recall, I think wolf was at something like 12 or 14.